[Ads-l] "underdog" redux

[Ben Zimmer]

Despite other unsupported theories (like the saw-pit theory I mention in
the column), it appears that Barker's "under dog" inspired "top dog" as
well. (The original poem refers to "the dog on top.") Examples of "the top
dog in the fight" (modeled on Barker's phrasing) appear as early as 1864.

----
Boston Herald, July 2, 1864, p. 4, col. 3 [ProQuest]
But this morning Billy was the "top dog in the fight," for Tim was fined
$25 and costs.
----
Ashtabula (Ohio) Weekly Telegraph, Nov. 12, 1864, p. 3
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16881547/top_dog/
Deputy Marshal Dickinson in an effort to stop the melee caught one of our
hands, and held it while waiting for some one to remove the top dog in the
fight.
----

--bgz


On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:57 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the 1890s I have seen this explained as a series of poems, of which the
> under dog is the first one praised, and the top dog is the last. Is this
> also the source of "top dog"?
>
> DanG
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 12:06 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > My Wall St. Journal column this week is on the word "underdog" in honor
> of
> > the Philadelphia Eagles.
> >
> > https://www.wsj.com/articles/underdogs-beyond-the-super-
> bowl-how-the-word-got-started-1516983394
> >
> > If paywalled, try accessing the column from my Twitter link:
> >
> > https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/956934354965553152
> >
> > I give credit to Fred Shapiro for discovering the origins of "underdog"
> in
> > the 1859 poem by David Barker, "The Under Dog in the Fight," as noted in
> > the Yale Book of Quotations. The poem was reprinted in many newspapers
> that
> > year, but here is where it first appeared:
> >
> > New York Evening Post, Apr. 4, 1859, p. 1, col. 2
> > http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83030384/1859-04-04/
> ed-1/seq-1.pdf
> >
> > (I don't think this cite has been shared before.)
>

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